Last semester, during my public speaking class, I was asked to create a bucket list. Most of us have some kind of bucket list created in our heads, if not written down on paper. However, it had been a while since the last time I’d actually sat down and created an updated bucket list for myself, without help from Pinterest or the web. As my professor suggested, I asked myself some important questions. What do I want my future to look like? What do I want to accomplish before I die? What really matters to me? Of course, these are super deep questions, and they can’t be answered overnight. However, I wrote my answers down on a whim, going with my gut and anything that happened to pop into my mind. My answers surprised me.
Even though I am a college sophomore, I have yet to discover what I truly want to do with my life. I may have scattered interests and ideas, but I have never had a set goal for myself. I don’t know what I’m meant to do. This troubles me at times, and the notion has given me plenty of anxiety in the past, but when I looked over my bucket list, I realized something valuable. What I had written on my bucket list included places where I want to travel to and activities that I want to try. I wrote about how much I want to learn how to ice skate and to play the violin, or at least attempt to. I discussed my desire to travel to Japan and to live by the beach. I spoke of living in the moment and having fun. While this exercise was meant to help me find something of a career path, it kind of showed me the opposite. Work isn’t everything.
With my new bucket list in mind, I am able to take a step back from my stress over the future. Of course, in our society, work is a big deal. It takes up a big portion of our lives, but it isn’t everything. No matter what kind of job you have, you can always try new things, go to new places, and pick up new hobbies. Half of the goals on my bucket list have nothing to do with what kind of career that I want to have. Most of the goals are related to fun new skills that I want to pick up and activities that can range from surfing to skinny dipping. You can transform your way of life outside of work and find value in what life has to offer. That isn’t to say that I shouldn’t have goals concerning my career, but this does tell me that there is more to life than just work and studies alone.
As a person who tends to overwork herself and forget about other things, I find creating a bucket list to be very refreshing. On top of this, I have created a vision board to supplement my bucket list. By copying and pasting a couple of images together, I can remind myself of my goals and that work shouldn’t take up all of my thoughts and time. The vision board reminds me of what I want in life and of the energy that I want to create around me. It is a reminder to let go from time to time and to remember the other parts of life.